Broken Arrow City Council
Meeting of: 11-05-2019
Title:
title
Consideration, discussion, and possible approval of and authorization to execute Resolution No. 1277, a Resolution of Support for the Tulsa Chamber 2020 OneVoice Legislative Priorities
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Background:
In 2008, the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce created the OneVoice agenda to represent the Tulsa Metropolitan area at the State Capitol and at the U.S. Capitol as one unified voice. In 2019 the City of Broken Arrow participated in the development of the OneVoice Agenda. This was accomplished by Staff’s attendance at the sub-committee meeting and the Tulsa Regional Business Summit, which was designed to better define the OneVoice Agenda.
The 2019 OneVoice Agenda is attached for the Council’s review. The priorities for State legislation include:
1. Improve the ability of Oklahoma’s Pre-K-12 public schools to attract, retain and return effective career teachers through policies designed to increase the state’s pool of qualified teachers and improve teachers’ job satisfaction.
2. Broaden and protect health care coverage by capturing all available state and federal funds for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.
3. Support a comprehensive multi-year plan to meet current and future workforce needs by investing in the state’s public education systems and establishing Oklahoma as a national leader in early childhood, K-12, CareerTech and higher education.
4. Prioritize funding for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to restore recently-cut services and allow for new innovations in prevention, treatment and services.
5. Maintain physician training funding for the state’s two largest medical schools in the base budgets of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority or university medical authorities.
6. Restore funding for higher education to make salaries competitive for faculty and staff, support college completion efforts, and keep tuition affordable for students and families.
7. Support the elimination of all exemptions to Oklahoma’s One Call Program (Call 811 Before You Dig).
8. Continue to improve our roads, bridges and return our streets and highways to a state of good repair by fully funding the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s Eight Year Plan and the County Improvement for Roads and Bridges Five Year Plan.
9. Show strong support for appropriate water conservation practices, incentives, and educational programs to moderate statewide water usage while preserving Oklahoma’s population growth and economic development goals.
10. Strengthen alternatives to incarceration and support reforms in sentencing, reentry and rehabilitation that safely reduce the prison population and enable nonviolent offenders to reenter the workforce.
11. Support tax credits, exemptions and incentives that provide an economic return to the state of Oklahoma, maintain competitiveness in business attraction and retention, and increase capital investment.
12. Increase OCAST’s (Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science and Technology) annual budget to fund more approved projects and capture additional matching funds from the private sector. With 85 approved but unfunded OCAST projects in 2018, $312 million in potential public-private investment was left on the table for growing and diversifying Oklahoma’s economy and building the tax base.
13. Support legislation that removes barriers to allow municipalities to reduce costs, operate efficiently, and diversify sources of revenue available to municipalities for operating revenue.
14. While supporting the rights granted by the Second Amendment, protect the current law giving venue owners, event operators, and recreational facilities the authority to control firearm policies on property they manage.
15. Improve state incentives for high-growth startup, early-stage and small companies through new rebates or credits, or amended existing programs.
The 2019 Federal Priorities include:
1. Fully fund and enhance the Corporation for National and Community Service, which supports local schools and nonprofit organizations with vital resources and manpower through AmeriCorps programs.
2. Refrain from changes to the structure and financing of Medicaid that would increase Oklahoma’s uninsured rate and would transfer federal risk and costs to Oklahoma taxpayers.
3. Support efforts to meet industry needs for skilled workers in jobs that require training beyond high school but not a four-year higher education degree.
4. Maintain the structure, financing and eligibility criteria of federal nutrition programs under the USDA, which benefit Oklahomans’ health, family stability and educational attainment.
5. Support the reform of federal financial aid eligibility to improve access to higher education for all Americans.
6. Expand Pell Grant eligibility to short-term, industry-driven training at higher education and vocational-technical clock-hour institutions.
7. Support efforts to expedite the implementation of the Arkansas River Corridor Project for river infrastructure improvements.
8. Increase Congressional appropriations to address the approximate $153 million in maintenance backlog of MKARNS-$139 million of which is deemed critical-potentially leading to a shutdown of the waterway over the next five years.
9. Continue to support addressing the critical infrastructure needs with Tulsa's aging levee system, which the Corps of Engineers has designated as one of the five percent highest-risk levee systems in the country.
10. Support measures to reduce or eliminate barriers to greater use of American-produced natural gas, including CNG, LNG, GTL and NGLs. Oklahoma is the third-largest producer of natural gas in the United States, and the Department of Energy should facilitate full development of this resource to strengthen the country’s national security, economic outlook and geopolitical position in the world.
11. Reform national criminal justice systems to emphasize rehabilitation and restorative justice.
12. Maintain federal Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credits for the restoration of historic buildings.
13. Encourage Congress to maintain, or even increase, current funding levels for the EPA's Brownfields Program.
14. Minimize the regulatory burden on small and medium employers under the Affordable Care Act and support efforts to reduce these employers’ cost of providing health care.
15. Strongly support (or oppose efforts to cut) targeted economic development funding for programs that have proven to be effective and beneficial to the Tulsa Region. These include the Economic Development Administration (EDA) grants for infrastructure and planning and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), a program under the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology.
A representative from Tulsa Chamber will address Council.
Cost: $0
Funding Source: None
Requested By: Steve Yoder, Business Retention and Expansion Coordinator
Approved By: City Manager’s Office
Attachments: Resolution No. 1277
Recommendation:
recommend
Approve Resolution No. 1277 and authorize its execution.
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